Inkjet printing systems are also are well known in the art. Small droplets of liquid ink, propelled by thermal heating, piezoelectric actuators, or some other mechanism, are deposited by a printhead on a print media, such as paper.
In scanning-carriage inkjet printing systems, inkjet printheads are typically mounted on a carriage that is moved back and forth across the print media. As the printheads are moved across the print media, the printheads are activated to deposit or eject ink droplets onto the print media to form text and images. The print media is generally held substantially stationary while the printheads complete a “print swath”, typically an inch or less in height; the print media is then advanced between print swaths.
The ink ejection mechanisms of inkjet printheads are typically manufactured in a manner similar to the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits. Ink ejection chambers are formed in a printhead die, with a resistor deposited at the base of the mechanism. The resistor, when energized, provides the energy to vaporize a portion of the ink in the chamber, propelling ink out of the chamber and onto a print media.
A tradeoff in the design of printing systems is the choice of drop weights. Lower drop weights tend to result in higher thermal waste due to higher average firing frequency for a given amount of ink, as well as the smaller drop mass available for carrying away heat. Higher drop weights may result in reduced print quality, typically due to the visibility of individual dots. The fabrication processes used in the manufacturing of printhead die constrain the formation of different drop weight ink ejection chambers on a single die.
There is thus a need for apparatus and systems which allow for multiple drop weight printer architectures.